if ye shall say to this mountain, be thou lifted up and cast into the sea, it shall be done; yea, all things whatsoever ye shall ask, believing in Me, ye shall receive" (xxi. 21, 22). In Luke: "If ye have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, and shall say to this sycamore tree, be thou rooted up and planted in the sea, it shall obey you" (xvii. 6).
By faith is here understood faith from the Lord, wherefore it is called the faith of God, and they who are in faith from the Lord ask for nothing but what conduces to the Lord's kingdom and their own salvation. Other things they do not desire, for they say in their hearts, why should we ask for anything that is not of such use? They cannot have the faith of God or faith from the Lord in asking anything but what it is given them from the Lord to ask. It is impossible for the angels of heaven to desire, and consequently to ask, anything else, and if they should, they could not possibly have any faith that they should receive it.
The Lord compared such faith to the ability and power of casting a mountain or a sycamore tree into the sea, because the Lord in this, as well as in other parts of the Word, spake by correspondences, wherefore those words are also to be understood spiritually. By a mountain is signified the love of self and of the world, thus the love of evil. By a sycamore tree is signified the faith of that love, which is a faith of the false from evil. By the sea is signified hell. By plucking up a mountain, and casting it into the sea by the faith of God, is signified to cast those loves, which in themselves are diabolical, into hell, and in like manner the faith of the false from evil, which is effected by faith from the Lord.
Passages from the evangelists concerning saving faith, which is faith of truth from the Lord:—In John: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so also must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but have eternal life.
